Prevention is better than cure: 60 years of protecting Lake Taupō's clear water

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-04-30 05:00

New Zealand

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Lake Taupō has retained its exceptionally clear waters, despite challenges from soil erosion, dairy expansion, and phosphorus and nitrogen contamination. Meanwhile the water quality in many of Aotearoa's other lakes continues to degrade - so what makes Taupō different? A new paper describes sixty years of shared effort to protect NZ's largest lake: including managing the catchment area, using science to shape land-use decisions to preserve the lake, and working cooperatively across central, regional and local government, and with Ngāti Tūwharetoa.